Like many other high school and college programs around the country, the second week of March 2020 proved to be interesting, and eventually disappointing, with a lot of uncertainty and unanswered questions in between.
That was the case for Houston Cougars signee Skyler Trevino and his Whitehouse Wildcats baseball team.
The Wildcats were out of town for a three-day tournament when after the opening day action of the tournament on Thursday, schools started to pull away for the sake of caution and they returned home. Whitehouse was mere days away from their district action beginning on the following Tuesday, and they wanted to stay sharp.
Coaches and schools started emailing around to find willing opponents. West Rusk, a 3A school from New London, Texas, about a 30-minute drive directly east from Whitehouse, was willing to travel to take on their 5A neighbor.
On Friday, March 13, Whitehouse blanked the West Rusk Raiders 5-0 in a 7pm game. There was momentary joy for the Wildcats. “After that game was when we got the news,” Skyler said. “It was only supposed to be for two weeks.” Three weeks and counting now, Trevino and his Wildcats teammates are still waiting. For Skyler on a personal level, the pause in the season happened at a bad time as he was just heating up having hit a homeurn in each of the final three games
For the time being, Trevino has a full gym at home and he is working out every day. He joins some buddies every few days at the little league park where they throw and hit in the cages. It is the best they can do right now, given the circumstances.
Skyler Trevino has played football for as long as he has played baseball. For the last two seasons, he played free safety for the Wildcats football team. Over those two seasons in 22 games he made 44 solo tackles and took part in another 10. As if that was not enough, Skyler also took the field as a wide receiver for his senior season. In 12 games he caught 35 passes for 704 yards and 7 touchdowns. Trevino handled some kick-off and punt returns for good measure as well.
But the dream, is baseball. It has been that way since he began going to Texas Rangers games in Arlington as a kid. Recollecting going to games at The Ballpark in Arlington, Skyler said, “Just watching the games and being in that ballpark and that atmosphere, baseball has always been something I wanted to do since then. I’ve always had a strong love for the game and just always enjoyed playing it a lot.” He continued, “I’ve always dreamed of going to play baseball somewhere.”
That somewhere will be the University of Houston starting this summer, or maybe the fall. No one has all the answers right now, and everyone is having to wait and see, ready and willing to adapt, but staying prepared for the time being. Baseball will happen again.
Houston was not Skyler’s first baseball offer, but it was the first and only offer he accepted. He made an official visit to the campus and the baseball facilities in his junior year. He watched a game at Schroeder Park and saw the new baseball facility still under construction at the time. He was beyond impressed with the coaches and committed to the Cougars shortly after the visit. “It felt right,” he says without hesitation. “I felt Houston was a good place for me to be.”
Greg Branch, the head baseball coach at Whitehouse, speaking of his star senior said, “Skyler is a leader and all of his teammates look up to him. He was a standout football player as well as one of the best left-handed bats I’ve ever coached. He was the perfect example of what we want our program to look like and he will do great things at the University of Houston.”
When baseball happens again, Skyler Trevino will be one of the new faces of the program on campus. He will keep working toward that dream of playing baseball in his own way until he reports to the University of Houston, at which point the dream continues to unfold.
Coach Branch added about Skyler, “I asked him recently what do you think you will play at the University of Houston and he said, ‘Coach I’ll play whatever they want me to play.’ That’s the kind of kid you are getting.” –
Houston Cougars Baseball Beat 